Arab News Chinese teaching growing in US, helped by Beijing Arab News Yuli Sun, a Chinese language immersion teacher, plays a word game with her students at Broadway Elementary School, part of the city of Los Angeles‚Äô public school system, in...

In second year of Chinese immersion, Orem students excelDaily HeraldEnglish is Yang's second language, and she never speaks a word of it in the classroom. And here's the real gob-smacking clincher -- neither do the students.

Dual immersionSt. George Daily SpectrumThe Utah Office of Education gave approval recently for the district to begin two new Chinese dual immersion programs, at Bloomington and Santa Clara elementary schools.

Computer Assisted Language Learning in Asian and African Languages in Higher Education – The Road AheadMuaadh SalihDate: 10 February 2012Time: 3:10 PMFinishes: 10 February 2012Time: 4:30 PMVenue: Russell Square: College BuildingsRoom: 4418Type of Event: ForumSeries: CLP ForumThe genesis of CALL at SOAS can be traced to the mid 80s where the first international conference for CALL was held to evaluate current situation then and to see the road ahead. Immediately afterword SOAS started the Arabic CALL development to become the main European higher education developing and applying CALL in teaching stream and learning of Arabic language degree. However, while CALL in European Language had progressed to become a recognised research discipline and part of teaching leaning curricula, the African and Asian language learning has not kept up with the main stream.

Finally! This is a brilliant atricle that gives a number of apps that aims to improve language ability in the four domains (reading, listening, speaking, writing) through immersion. Definitely worth a look! I have downloaded a few myself and find them to be great!

In dual language education programs, students are taught literacy and academic content in English and a partner language. The goals of dual language are for students to develop high levels of language proficiency and literacy in both program languages, to demonstrate high levels of academic achievement, and to develop an appreciation for and an understanding of diverse cultures.

Parents of Minnetonka immersion students are still looking for a new decision on basic skills tests for immersion teachers and hope for some changes at the state legislature as soon as this week.

A new law requires all teachers to pass a basic skills test before teaching in public schools.

However, some parents believe the level of English proficiency required in the test for Chinese and Spanish immersion teachers is impractical.

"One of the goals of our immersion program is to hire teachers with native-level fluency in the immersion language," commented one parent.

As of publication of our poll, 111 votes were cast in the Patch Poll published March 20 (included here for another round of voting). To answer the question "Should immersion teachers have to take the basic skills test?," 45 people voted "Yes, the same test as all teachers, in English;" 44 voted "Yes, a similar test in their native language;" 10 voted "No, they shouldn't have to take the test at all;" and 12 voted "Yes, but give them extra time to pass the English test."

It should be noted that the last option was added just before 9 a.m. when the article was published earlier that day.

Sen. Terri Bonoff (DFL-Minnetonka) has introduced legislation giving immersion school teachers who already have a provisional license until 2014 to pass the exam.

"The last thing we want to do is penalize these outstanding students, teachers and programs because of an unintended consequence of the law," Bonoff told the Star Tribune.

In the House, Rep. Connie Doepke (R-Minnetrista) introduced a bill that would grant the extension for all teachers who have a provisional license.

Apparently, 400 teachers who are already teaching will have to pass the test before going back to the classroom next school year. Another 1,100 "hopeful" teachers have failed the test and have license applications pending, according to the Star Tribune.

Public school teachers were already required to take the basic skills test but did not have to pass before they began teaching. Under the old law, teachers who failed the test could get a three-year provisional license that allowed them to teach while trying to get a passing score. The teacher licensing exams are currently only offered in English.

The new law requiring all public school teachers to pass the test before they can teach took effect in late February.

The Basics of Chinese Immersion Program DesignAsia SocietyDesigning a language immersion program requires a level of commitment on the part of the administration, teachers, students, and parents that is far beyond that of many other types of...

Demand for English is set to grow and, according to ELT researcher David Gaddol, it will peak at around 2 billion learners in the next 10 to 15 years. Given the scale of learning it is unlikely that traditional, face-to-face language providers will be able to meet this need. The alternative for people who either cannot afford or get access to classroom-based lessons is likely to be online learning. So what does virtual teaching currently offer?

KUALA LUMPUR: A common Bahasa Malaysia (BM) curriculum will be introduced at the primary level, starting from the 2014 Year 4 cohort.

This is to achieve the Education Ministry’s target of having 90 per cent of students scoring a minimum of credit in SPM BM by 2025.

Up to five hours of intensive remedial classes will also be made available each week for National-type schools to help those who struggle with the language.

This move will address the disparities in performance between the various ethnic groups as Chinese and Tamil students tend to score lower in SPM BM compared to the Bumiputeras because they have lower exposure to the language in National-type schools.

The remedial programme will eventually be replicated in other schools where there are groups of students falling behind in BM and additional teachers will be upskilled when necessary.

This combination of raising the standards of the language and providing additional support for students throughout their primary schooling years will allow the ministry to do away with the remove class by 2017.

Long term efforts to develop BM into a language of knowledge will also be intensified by encouraging academics to develop new bodies of work in BM, getting the Malaysian Institute of Translation and Books to translate international research and key terminology into BM and having more language training courses organised by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka as well as local universities.

The results obtained in this study back up those achieved for Marjorie L. Myers (2009); in both studies the statistical significance of the impact of the TWI program and the ESL program on the academic achievement in Reading and Mathematics by children with disabilities learning English as a second language were p > .05, in other words, the difference is not statistically significant.

Personal learning networks are a great way for educators to get connected with learning opportunities, access professional development resources, and to build camaraderie with other education professionals.

Check out our guide to growing your personal learning network with social media, full of more than 30 different tips, ideas, useful resources, and social media tools that can make it all possible.

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